Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-11
THE GOBLIN RAT.
Pat o'Tooie's Adventure with a Monster
Rodent in Chicago Sewer.

Chicago News.
II might be eNGsCted that the sewer.
cleaners would make some big finds in
their underground work, but they all deny
that this is the case. Broken glass that
cuts their rubber boots is, according to
their story, about ali thar is to be found
under the streets. At one time, it is said,
s sewer cleaner found silver dollar,
but this was so long ago that the story
has passed into the traditions of
the sewer cleaning fraternity. Thereon
hangs g tale, which was related the other
afternoon by Mike Mcbride, a tall ,shapely
old boy some fifty years of age, who has
spent thirty years of his life in the sewers,
ana is as healthy as any man in town. 1t
was about I 80 IL the afternoon, TOO late
10 make smother haul and too early to 90
home, 80 the boys filed into neighbOTing
saloon, aDd, seated around the table, lit
their pipes, and with their well filled
glasses in front of them listened 20 the
story, giving an occasional nod of ap-
prevail as he proceeded.
at was before the fire." said Mike, "and
the only sewer Of any consequence at that
time was the big one on Twelfth street.
One gang did the work that now keeps
half dozen busy. and IN the gang was q
man named Pat O'Toole. Now, Pat was
a good sort of boy, but Just trife too
sOciRble. We had been working on the
big sewe- fOr G couple of days, and had
heard peculiar r0isc several times When
we entered. We thought little of it, and
supposed that 1t was made ~ the streams
from some of the smaller sewers. That
of Pat do no 1pr l-, vii nd
picked up silver dollar. OF course that
was more than he could stand without
setting them up for the boys, so as it was
about time to knock off work he asked US
cut TO take little something, and we ali
went, he never thinking of the brand-new
hoe he had left behind him. That dollar
went in 4 hurry, and good many more
after It, and one by one we all went home,
leaving Pat, who was getting pretty mel
low, at the saloon. He stald there drink
ing until nigh midnight, and then he
started for home. 1t would have been ell
right if he hadn't got an idea that he
wanted that hoe, and back he started
for it. He lifted the manhole, and, light
ing his candle, got down into the sewer.
1t wes mighty quiet and and lonesome
down there; and, as he CROPPED
along to the place where he had lett his
hoe, he felt mighty queer. All of sud
den he heard the noise we had heard for
two or three days, only much louder, snd
it sounded in the still air like q dog
munching bone, only more grating and
rasping-like. He looked ahesd and saw
two eyes glittering in the darkness, and
then he saw the form of q sewer rat as big
as Newfoundland dog crouching in a
connecting sewer and looking at him. Pat
forgot his hoe and stood and looked at
the monster rat until it started toward
him. Then he started to run and managed
to get up through the manhole, but the
horrible brute was after him and chased
him to his home. His wife was waiting
tor him, and was heard to say: 'Ye have
EN- again, have ye? o I'll take 'em out
of Yez.' Pat died the next night, and raved
all day long about the goblin rat. The
doctor said that it was the tremens that
killed him, but every one knows that is
not true"
The goblin rat is still alive, aud rosms
around the sewers, but has never been
seen but once since, and that was on the
day that the sewer boys were killed by
gas on Fulton street.